Warning: this is a long post with a lot of photos so settle in
Last year, I can admit was not our best Christmas and New Years celebrations of all time. This year however, our family time truly ended up being magical – I think. I mean not everyone was happy all the time or felt great all the time or got along perfectly all the time, but I’ll take it happily with no complaints…2015 a kind-of rotten time/2016 a kind-of super (that word is for B) time – the Taylor Family Christmas Time universe balanced itself.
But…… I will start with the bad news first. I ALWAYS have some sort of Christmas fail. I wrap everyone’s gifts in different paper but don’t tell them which paper is theirs until Christmas morning and I have a tendency to forget whose is whose or wrap something in the wrong paper. It’s a joke now but I only forgot one this time around. Last year’s fail was epic – with a broken in the first half hour of opening it piece of shizzz hoverboard I bought on the streets of LA; another year was a pirated copy of the Hunger Games that was ridiculously badly filmed – this year Ari wanted these super cute baby pink Adidas that were sold out everywhere in the US, so I took a chance on a chinese website (lucky my credit card didn’t have fraud on it, knock on wood). This is what “light pink” translates to in chinese I guess and no I can’t return them. 
Lessons learned from Christmas fails:
- Don’t buy ANY electronics including chargers or cords in the garment district of LA
- Don’t buy any pirated DVD’s – even if they are only $1
- Don’t order anything from China.
- Write down whose paper is whose – put that in a hidden place – that I write down where I hid it because I will forget that too. And maybe write down where I hid stuff – since I forget that too and find it later in the year. Wait I’m confused – I guess I need suggestions on this one?
For Christmas eve TT thought it would be a GREAT idea to change our tradition of having clam chowder to having lamb kabobs (I guess he ate lamb at a restaurant and really likes it) and birthday cake. He tried to convince me by telling me it was more appropriate because Christ is our shepherd (thus we should eat the lambs? 15 yr old boy logic) and because it’s Jesus’ birthday. So I let the boys change up our food traditions – but no lamb (gross) – instead we had steak kabobs and TT really baked a cake too. The girls and I had one more errand to go to the mall to get one last stocking stuffer- oh this is where I insert #5 – DON’T go to the mall on Christmas Eve. And then we picked up Aub from the airport. While we were gone, the boys cooked, cleaned and decorated!! What?? I have to say I really like that tradition!
They even found red and green plastic tablecloths and green straws.
Then we made our graham cracker train/abstract sculpture/space car set. Can you guess who made what?
Overnight we were blessed with a very white Christmas day, we went to church and spent most the day in pajamas and ate chicken tacos – another choice from the boys instead of enchiladas and just chilled out.
A year ago on New Years eve, Lelu and B had a conversation about how cool it would be to go to New York for New Years – honestly we could probably win an award for being the lamest, laziest new years eve celebrators ever. I dreamed about going when I was a kid watching the ball drop on TV, especially while I was babysitting every New Years from 10-15. B and I were going to go for 1999/2000 but got scared because of Y2K (so dumb now). And so their conversation led to a “why not? Ok but Let’s plan way ahead” conversation with B and I and as the family travel agent/planner/coordinator, I set it in motion about nine months ahead of time. We pretty much ate our way through the city, learned how to use Uber thanks to Aub, fought the crowds without too much trouble and pulled it off. I also asked each of the kids to take at least 20 photos and write me a paragraph of what they thought. Words from the kids:
TT:
New York was one of the coolest experiences of my life. I saw so many things I recognized from movies, TV, pictures, etc.. Just on the drive to the hotel from the airport I saw some super cool things, like where the Alien guy from the movie Men in Black tried to get to his UFO. Our hotel was on Times Square and through our parent’s hotel room window you could see everything! The food in New York was incredible (I can now see why it’s the food capital of the country). On New Year’s Eve we all went down into our parents room and sat around the window counting down the hours to midnight. When the time finally came we all yelled and threw balloons around. It was definitely one of the most amazing experiences of my life!
No TT’s were actually harmed in the taking of this hogtied photo
Ari:
When I got here it was very cold but not like the cold in Utah it was a different cold that I was NOT used to. The city was sooooo cool! I loved how bright it always was! My favorite part of the whole trip was i don’t know because it was all my favorite! My favorite meal was Tavern on the Green because I didn’t really like Scarpetta’s meal but the Tavern on the Green was really good and I also really liked the bread they had. At the Tavern on the Green I got a stout braised short ribs and palenta. But my favorite desert was by far the one from scarpetta’s. I got espresso tirimusu type of thing but it was really good! My favorite breakfast/lunch was The Lambs Club because I got this amazing burger which was delicious! My favorite activity we did was just being together and having fun! New Years was probably one of the funnest days because first we went to Matilda the musical which I really liked, then we went back to our hotel got dinner and ice cream and just hung out with each other and watched the ball drop! It was sooo cool to see the ball drop that close where we didn’t have to push through crowds and be cold or wait to go to the bathroom for a long time! This is one of my favorite trips that my family has gone on and it probably will be for a long time!
Table made of Taylors
Lelu:
I would recommend making New York City for New Years Eve a TOP priority in your life. The only downside is the cold and the crowds. With that being said, this is not a tradition type of thing, it is most definitely a bucket list type of thing. & one of my favorites to cross off my list! 2017’s New Year will go down as one of my very very favorites. Our night consisted of room service, light up balloons, pajama’s, and an UNREAL view from our warm, roomy, toilet-available hotel room! I couldn’t have asked for a better set up. Considering TWO MILLION people showed up in Times Square. We couldn’t have done it any better, in my opinion. The rest of our trip consisted of lots and lots of yummy food (I might dream of banana pudding from magnolia bakery forever, as well as my spaghetti from scarpetta’s), Matilda on Broadway, getting my makeup perfected in Bloomingdales, being disappointed by the One World Trade Center (it’s simply just a tourist attraction, and in no way honored those lost in 9/11.. which very much annoyed me), walking, shopping, and lots more EATING. It was one of my very favorite family vacations ever! THANK YOU MOM & DAD. 
Lightly snowing in front of Rockefeller Center 
View from the Freedom Tower
Master D:
Last time I was in Manhattan was nearly five years ago. I went as a senior trip with my parents. Some fond memories are still with me from there. Chiefly food and the thrill of the bustle. For brunch this trip around, we once again went to Geoffrey Zacharian’s the Lamb’s Club. It was excellent yet again, though perhaps nothing will reach the majesty I’ve built up five years ago in my mind. It was a shame that my sweetheart was unable to be with me this New Years, especially as we were in Times Square. I am, however, grateful for my family and love them dearly. They are patient for me when I need them to be. Uber is a wonderful service for the traveler (not as much the driver). Don’t go to the one World Trade Center observatory. It’s a commercialized mockery. Do spend as much time as you can just walking around. And remember to look up.
Aub:
Spending the change to a new year in NYC with the family was even better than I had imagined it might be. First, this trip was made up of the greatest number of consecutive days that I’ve spent with my family in years and years, and it was so much fun to be together for so long. Tallon and Arielle weren’t even in school yet when I moved away at 18, and everyone changes and does so much between the times that I see them every holiday, so it’s nice to have more time to relax and be around each other before we go off to our separate lives again. Now that we’re all old enough to be relatively autonomous, it’s great to recognize that all five of us kids have the same sense of humor and the same reactions to stress and rag on each other in the same ways.
We also had an incredible set of events to attend together in the city. Mom coordinated our itinerary so well that I never felt like we were rushing from place to place or like we didn’t have enough to do, and I felt pretty damn spoiled the whole time. Highlights for me included dinner at Scarpetta, where I had the best pasta I’ve ever eaten and to which I definitely will return, and seeing the Matilda musical on Broadway. One lowlight was the time that we spent up in the One World Observatory, which felt overpriced, overcrowded, and lacking in sentimentality in turns. That said, the couple of hours that the other kids and I kicked it at the mall across the street while waiting to go up to the Observatory was another highlight in my mind. I had a great time taking pictures and laughing and just being together.
I have a great family, and I feel privileged to have spent such a great time with them in such a great city.
The mall underneath the new Freedom Tower
Aub wins the prize for taking the best photos and here are a few of them
Check out the height of the photo bomber behind them
It would be almost impossible to get a paragraph from B. He’s happy to see all of us happy, he’d rather be mountain biking, glad we could fit in a dinner and lunch with a couple clients since we left a day earlier than the kids.
Highlights for me were: the weather was totally doable, 30’s and 40’s no wind chill; I loved the Christmas and Hanukkah decor everywhere we went; the food; and being with my family – all of which can be done in December without HIGH security (machine gun toting police, bomb sniffing dogs, 7000 cops, dump trucks filled with sand and concrete barriers blocking every road into Times Square, snipers on rooftops, you get the idea). Yet It was an adventure for the books and I’m glad we are all home safe and sound anticipating 2017 unknown adventures. 
